This 19th Year of Coast Guard Service to the nation of Belize has been a remarkable one. One filled with accomplishments, and promising future initiatives, and I’m excited to share in summary some of those highlights and update you on our continued strengthening and improvements of your Belize Coast Guard.
I see a broad cross section of attendees here today from foreign military officers that represents our alliances, political leaders, policy makers, government agencies, NGO’s, partners and friends of the Belize Coast Guard who have all had some form of investment in this maritime service that we call the Belize Coast Guard. And it is my duty as the Commandant to report to you on the State of your Coast Guard Service.
This year, the Coast Guard expanded its operational reach in new dimensions, we went airborne with the launch of our Drone Squadron in August with the Perimeter 8 Unmanned Air System. This new operational dimension bridges a gap that existed in our capability now enabling your Belize Coast Guard to conduct areal surveillance in support of marine conservation efforts whilst simultaneously supporting every one of our twenty two other Coast Guard mission that we are legislated to execute. We are happy to report that since the launch of our Drone Squadron, with the support of the USCO we have qualified 6 of our pilots as trainers to ensure capacity building and to ensure that we develop the expertise that Belize needs in this increasingly expanding technology. Furthermore, thanks to our Mexican counterpart we were able to train three of our pilots in Mexico City in drone operations that is crucial in building our doctrine in this new capability that we are developing.
Even at nineteen years the Coast Guard must continue to seek new capabilities, new areas of development to meet the new challenges that we face in an ever increasingly evolving and complex security challenges. Read More: Belize Coast Guard Watchstander December 2024 (file will open in new tab).